Molded pulp carton



April 2s, 195s MOLDED PULP CARTON Filed March 24, 1947 j? 5 j@ "I" l@@WM/f2 jy' L. H. BROWN 2,636,660

Patented Apr. 28, `1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MOLDED PULP CARTONLile H. Brown, Thorndike, Mass., assignor to Shellmar ProductsCorporation, Chicago, Ill., a

corporation of Delaware Application March Z4, 1947, Serial No. 736,791

3 Claims. (Cl. 229-45) but limitations imposed by the molding processand functional requirement of the egg trade have made the development ofa commercially acceptable carton a problem. Y

A principal object of this invention is to provide a molded pulp cartonhaving a cellular arrangement which dimensionally meets the trade needs,provides room for large eggs,A protects against breakage, compensatesfor the reduced transverse internal space resulting from the tapering ofthe sides of a carton and nests closely enough for shipping purposes.

Another object is the provision of a molded pulp carton having twolongitudinal rows of cells, the corresponding cells in each row beingstaggered or offset to allow the eggs of one row to lie in between theeggs of the other row, thereby enabling closure of the carton cover evenwhen a large egg is placed in the carton.

A further object is to construct a carton of the type described whichwill accommodate long and thick eggsand still be of such dimensions asto t into a standard egg case.

These and other objects will be evident fro the following descriptionand the drawings, in which:

- Fig. l is a plan view of the carton shown with its cover in openedposition;

Fig. 2 is an end view of the carton in partially closed position showingthe positioning of eggs;

and

cases to the packer, being disposed in the case in tiers of flats andfillers. The eggs are candled by the packer and placed in 2 X 6 cartons,which are then returned to the case for shipment to retail outlets.Since the cartons are packed three across in each compartment of thecase and inA i'lve vertically disposed layers, the limitations as tosize of the cartons are approximately as follows: height 21/2 inches,width 3% inches, and length ll, inches. It is better that the cartons beslightly under the theoretical dimensions of the case, since the latteroften is warped. Thus,

`Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along line` 3- 3 a well-known 2 X 6paperboard carton now on the market has a length of only 11% inches.

One of the requirements of the pulp molding process is that the walls ofan article be tapered so that it can be Withdrawn from the forming die,and also to permit the articles to be shipped in nested relation. Thus,as shown in the drawings, the cover of the present carton has a iiat topI0 and outwardly and downwardly tapered front and rear walls, Il and I2,respectively. The

cover is of generally parallelogram shape with` outwardly tapered endWalls I3 and I4, as hereinafter described in detail, and two marginalcover-locking tabs l5 are. integrally connected to the front wall Il,these being adapted to inter-` lock with the bottom section, as willalso be described. The rear wall l2 is hinged to the bottom section ofthe carton along aline IB. l

It will be noted that the top lll of the carton is more narrow than thewidth of the carton along its middle, this being a condition imposed bythe tapered walls. As a result, the transverse area internally of thecover reduces toward the top, i. e., there is less transverse eggcarrying space in the cover than atvthe center of the carton. Since eggsare packed in a carton with their large end up, a carton having a coverof sufeient volume to accommodate large eggs positioned directly acrossfrom each other in the transverse direction may be unduly wide at thecenter of the carton, er, if the carton is narrow enough to nt into a 30dozen case, it will have inadequate egg carrying space in the cover.

The bottom section of the carton shown in the drawings is 4designed toprovide adequate transverse space in the cover of the carton withoutundue width. The bottom section has two longi-4 tudinally extending rowsof egg cells each including a bottom il from which upwardly taperedwalls extend. These walls include outer walls i8,

inwardly inclined cover walls I9 on each side of the outer walls, sidewalls 2U adjoining the corner walls, and centrally tapered, transverselyangled partition-forming walls 2l. Each of the cells save those at anoutermost end of each of the rows has` an inner wall 22 joining walls2l. said outermost cells the walls 2l converge and meet.

It will be noted that the cells of each row adjoin each other along thereducedspace represented by the upwardly merging and meeting walls 2E.Walls 2i? have greater taper than the other walls of the bottom andmerge somewhat below the tops of said other walls.

Between the upper margins of adjacent walls I9 are triangular platforms23.

Along the center of the carton the walls 2! and 22 merge together toform a longitudinal partition of zig-zag shape. The cells of the rearrow are positioned in longitudinally staggered relation with respect tothe cells in the iront row, that is, the centers of the cells in one roware opposite the lines of merger of the cells in the other row.Furthermore, by the zig-'zag torination of the longitudinal partition,the cells of one row are laterally nested or inset into or betweenadjoining cells of the other row.

As shown in Fig. 3, the walls 2i and 2i. are of less height than theouter walls of the cells, but of greater height than the merging sidewalls 2i). At their tops, walls 2l and 22 are joined by horiu zontal,triangular platforms 2li which lie laterally abreast a cell in one rowvand between adjacent cells in the other row. Platforms iid are thussuccessively positioned oppositely ano*l staggered along thelongitudinal partition.

Between two sets of cells, and at longitudinally spaced positionsopposite the coverlocking hooks I5, the iront side of the carton isprovided with hook-receiving openings iii which function in the mannershown in Fig. 3 toreceive .said hooks and retain the cover in closedposition.

Along the front wall of the bottom section is joined a cover-bracingflap 2li which normally extends outwardly as shown in Fig. l. Itpreferably is joined to the bottom section along a weakened hinge lineto facilitate bending. It Will be noted that this cover bracing flangebacks up the openings 25 and aids in strengthening the sides of. thelatter so as to make itl more difiicult to displace hooks loinadvertently from their engagement with the openings.

In utilizing the carton, eggs are placed in the cells in the mannershown in Fig. 2,. These eggs are staggered and an egg in'one row will beable to extend into the space between eggs in merging cells of the otherrow, thus taking advantage of the round shape or" the eggs and cells toprovide transverse space in the carton. Lacking this staggeredpositioning, in the oase oi large eggs the width of the cover is notgreat enough to accommodate the eggs without undue distortion of thecover or breakage oi the eggs.

In closing the cover, the flange 26 is rotated upwardly and inwardly toa position within the.

cover, and the cover rotated over into the position shown in Fig. 3. Thehooks liare then pressed into the openings 25 from the outside of thecartons. If there are large eggs in the carton, closure of the taperedcover tends to press the tops of the eggs `toward they center of thecarton; that is, they tend to lean over tc- Ward the opposite row ofeggs, and since they can be accommodated in the space between adjacenteggs in said opposite row, there is less tendency for them to be crushedthan where the eggs in the two rows are oppositely posi tioned. Also,even though eggs in the opposite rows come in contact, the staggereddisposition places their contact point in a tangential line at an angleto the transverse line oi application of crushing force, hence reducesthe tendency for breakage.

As the eggs lean over (Fig. 2) 'their longitudinal axis is at an angl-e,and therefore, the eggs also occupy less vertical space in the carton,which is of particular value in the case of long eggs. Thus thestaggered positioning ci the merging cells provide for both transverseand vertical space in the carton.

By arranging the cells in staggered relation,

i pend upon such factors as the amount of room it is desired to gaintransversely of the carton and the distance between cell centers in eachrow. Thus, for a carton of the same overall length as that shown in thedrawings, but with cells which are wider spaced, less than a fullstagger will be desired.

The above described carton has the advantage that, when the cartons arecrated in a 30 dozen carton, the cartons of alternate layers are atright angles and in closing' relation, themajority of eggs in any layerwill 'be so positioned that the vertical axis thereof does notfcoincidewith the vertical axis of, the corresponding egg in the layertherebeneath. Thus direct transmission of vertical crushing stress isminimized.

The particular shape of the carton cells andv the wall structure may bechanged variously from the form shown in the drawings. For in* stance,provision may be made for divisibility. of the carton into half dozensizes. All such modications are intended to be included in the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. A molded paper pulp carton comprisingA cover and bottom sections ofelongated generally, parallelogram-shaped outline in plan, said sec-ftions being laterally enclosed around opposedi side and end marginsthereof and being integrally hinged to one another along onelongitudinal side margin to bring the sections into ver-g tical registerin the closed condition of the Carv ton, said bottom section beingprovided with internal opstanding formations, all of heighty less thanthat of said bottom section margins, arranged to subdivide the same intoparallel rows of inclined wall cells which are in staggered,longitudinally and axes 'of eggs disposed in adjoining longitudinallyextending rows may readily be disposed in upm wardly convergent angularrelationship by the.`

transverse overlapping of the rounded inner surfaces of the eggs, and aflange of substantial area integrally connected to the freev margin ofsaid bottom section and disposed, in said closed conv dition, inupright, vertically bracing relationto said cover section within thefree margin of the latter, said flange at one end `.thereof longitu-Vlaterally enclosed around opposed side and endmargins thereof and beingintegrally hinged to one another along one longitudinal side margin tobring the sections into vertical register in the f closed condition ofthe carton, said bottom sec# 1 tion being provided with internalupstanding formations, all of height less than that of said bottomsection margins, arranged to subdivide the sameinto parallel rows ofinclined wall cells transversely nested. relation to one another,wherebythe respectivey which are in staggered, longitudinally andtransversely nested relation to one another, whereby the respective axesof eggs disposed in adjoining longitudinally extending rows may readilybe disposed in upwardly convergent angular relationship by thetransverse overlapping of the rounded inner surfaces of the eggs, and aflange of substantial area integrally connected to the free margin ofsaid bottom section and disposed, in said closed condition, in upright,vertically bracing relation to said cover section within the free marginof the latter, said ilange at one end thereof longitudinallyover-extending the corresponding end of the opposite, hinged side marginof the bottom section to support the cover section in this zone, theends of said bottom section having inwardly extending abutmentsengageable by the cover section ends to prevent vertical telescoping ofthe sections in these zones.

3. A molded paper pulp carton comprising cover and bottom sections ofelongated generally parallelogram-shaped outline in plan, said sectionsbeing laterally enclosed around opposed side and end margins thereof andbeing integrally hinged to one another along one longitudinal sidemargin to bring the sections into vertical register in the closedcondition of the carton, said bottom section being provided withinternal upstanding formations, all of height less than that of saidbottom section margins, arranged to subdivide the same into parallelrows of inclined Wall cells which are in staggered, longitudinally andtransversely nested relation to one another, whereby the respective axesof eggs disposed in adjoining longitudinally extending rows may readilybe disposed in upwardly convergent angular relationship by thetransverse overlapping of the rounded inner surfaces of the eggs, and amember of substantial area integrally hinged to the other longitudinalside margin of said bottom section and disposed, in said closedcondition, in upright.

vertically bracing relation to said cover section within the free marginof the latter.

LILE H. BROWN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

